Deane started to work as an editor in the late 1960s and the western The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) is his first credit. He then worked as assistant film editor on the drama Pieces of Dreams (1970) and the drama C.C. and Company (1970) on which he worked with fellow assistant editor John Hanley. Following his work on Star Trek: The Next Generation he also worked on two episodes of Dinosaurs (1991), the pilot episode of Night Man (1997, starring Matt McColm), and the television science fiction film The Darwin Conspiracy (1999).